


if we have each other

by illrunwithyou



Series: please don't take my sunshine away [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Kissing but that's it, Light Angst, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Self-Esteem Issues, Will in love, most of the 7 are just mentioned, nico in love, relationships, slight angst, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25624555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illrunwithyou/pseuds/illrunwithyou
Summary: Love is hard but Nico and Will will figure it out.--------Songfic for Alec Benjamin's If We Have Each Other
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Everyone, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: please don't take my sunshine away [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848148
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	if we have each other

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THE TAGS BEFORE CONTINUING. There is only a couple homophobic slurs and mentions of self-esteem issues but it is still there so read at your own risk.
> 
> This is the second part of my series. Can be read as a stand alone lol, doesn't really matter. 
> 
> again, please forgive me for any mistakes, this is unbetaed
> 
> song belongs to Alec Benjamin and characters belong to Rick Riordan! I do not own anything!
> 
> again, the bolded and italicized parts are the lyrics of the song.

_**She was 19 with a baby on the way. On the EastSide of the city, she was working every day. Cleaning dishes in the evening, she could barely stay awake. She was clinging to the feeling that her luck was gonna change.** _

Will rushed throughout the infirmary, gliding on his feet. It was a wonder that he wasn’t a son of Hermes. A team they had sent out to find more demigods who were mingling in the human world had been lured in and attacked by a group of monsters. They had nearly died just from the trip to bring them back to Camp Half-Blood. Will normally saw horrendous injuries before but this many in one room was nearly too much to bear. 

“Will, this patient needs you!” 

“Coming!” Will rushed over with some disinfectant and gauze. 

By the time all the patients were snug in their hospital beds and taken care of, all the healers were exhausted. Will leaned on the counter and rubbed his head slowly, head nearly falling from his arms. 

Tomorrow, he assured himself, tomorrow will be a better day. 

_**And 'cross town she would take the bus at night. To a one bedroom apartment, and when she'd turn on the light. She would sit down at the table, tell herself that it's alright. She was waiting on the day she hoped her baby would arrive.** _

Nico had just stepped outside his father’s throne room and his head ached. His father expected him to track down and chase a few escaped souls in two days? He couldn’t even sharpen his sword in two days, much less carry out such a difficult task. However, his father wouldn’t hear it and sent him away, warning him against a single word of protests. 

He packed his bags, wrote a note for Will telling him that he was going incognito for a few days, and left. The souls turned out to be two cowards who just didn’t want to go into their next lives. The first place he had looked, the homes of the souls, was where he had found both of them. Then came the hard part, convincing them to go back to the Underworld. Every time he came near them, they would run. Nico, however, has a few tricks up his sleeves and a few skeleton soldiers and motivational words later, he had them bawling, promising that they were just scared to leave behind this life.

Nico fell onto his bed that night, body aching. He hoped tomorrow would be better.

_**She'd never be alone, have someone to hold. And when nights were cold, She'd say: The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad, If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your mother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“Nico, my sunshine. What have you been up to lately? I saw your note.” Will wrapped his arms around him and rested his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder. 

“Ah, not much, just the usual, chasing down monsters, spirits, lost souls, whatever. What about you?” Will tickled Nico and he stifled a laugh, which caused them both to fall over on the bed. They just stayed like that, seemingly content with life. They fell asleep like that, in each other’s arms. 

“Will! There’s been an attack at Camp Jupiter! We need to leave immediately!” Jonathon, another child of Apollo’s burst into Cabin 13 where they all knew they would find Will. The children of Apollo and Jason were the only ones who knew about Will and Nico’s relationship (although they had to threaten Jason to not tell the rest of the group). All the Apollo children knew that their brother would never cuddle with his boyfriend in their cabin as it was too loud and messy for his precious boyfriend. They were also well versed on how to enter Cabin 13 when looking for Will and none of it involved bursting into the room. That was why Will was annoyed but one look at his brother’s face and he knew it was urgent. Will quickly pressed a kiss to Nico’s forehead and rushed to the door when a hand on his wrist stopped him. 

“Camp Jupiter is far.” 

“Shh, baby, don’t worry about it. Just go back to sleep.” Will pulled his hand away and put his boyfriend’s hand back gently. 

“No.” Nico sat up, sleepily rubbing his eyes and pushing back his messy hair. “I’ll shadow travel you guys there.”

“Nah, we got this, you just go back to sleep.” 

“Will, Camp Jupiter is in California. We’re literally on the other side of the world.” 

“Actually, Nico has a point. We also have to take a lot of our healers and a lot of other supplies.” Jonathon supplied, still awkwardly standing by the door. 

Will bit his lip and reluctantly agreed. While they were rushing to the infirmary Jonathon filled him in. Camp Jupiter had been experiencing dozens of attacks in a row. They had gotten three attacks in just a single week and their supplies were being depleted. Will once again bit his lip in worry as they gathered the supplies and the still-sleepy healers. Nico instructed them to hold onto a rope to shadow travel. Nico took a deep breath. 

“Are you scared?” Will whispered, to which Nico nodded gently. Will took his hand and squeezed it, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” 

_**When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind, If we have each other then we'll both be fine. I will be your mother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“What’s up,” A new child of Hermes walked over to where Nico was sitting, trying to sharpen his sword. Leo was busy and he was too embarrassed to ask anyone else how to do it himself so he took it upon himself to sharpen his own sword. 

Nico nodded towards him, unsure of what else to do. The son of Hermes pulled him up by his collar and whispered, “Fag. I saw you making out with your boyfriend yesterday.” 

Nico’s eyes widened. It was supposed to be a secret makeout place that Will’s sister recommended. The son of Hermes spit on the ground close to him, “You are disgusting. Why does Will even like you? You are a monster, you raise the dead. You’d better leave him before he finds you disgusting too.” He sneered and left Nico alone, nose up in the air, proud of his comments. 

He tried to not let the insults get to him but that night, when Will tiredly stalked out of the infirmary and fell into Nico’s arms, he couldn’t help but ask. 

“Am I disgusting?” 

Will perked up immediately, “Of course not! How could you say that about yourself?” 

“I raise the dead. I...I’m a monster.” 

“Never, you are one of the most powerful demigods I’ve ever known and one of the coolest too.” 

“Really?” 

“Of course. How many demigods could say they personally run errands for their father, could say they went through Tartarus alone, survived through Cupid’s taunts, lost his family, all before the age 15? How many more demigods could say that they stayed strong and maintained a strong sense of morality and humanity and even able to unite the camps that have hurt him so badly?” Nico stared at his shoes. “You are probably the coolest demigod ever and it’s such an honor to be your boyfriend.” 

Nico giggled at Will’s sincerity and stuck his arms out, like a baby whining for a bottle. Will immediately wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and pressed a passionate kiss to his lips.

When they pulled away, Nico stuttered, “Sorry, it-it’s just that-that...someone said that to me and I was thinking, what do you even like about me?” 

Will took his hand, “Never think like that again. I will always love you no matter what.”

_**They were 90 and were living out their days, On the Westside of the city, next to where they got engaged. They had pictures on the walls of all the memories that they'd made. And though life was never easy, they were thankful that they stayed. With each other, and though some times were hard, even when she made him angry, he would never break her heart.** _

Will flopped down on Nico’s bed, exhausted from yet another hard day at the infirmary. Why must there always be so many people who get hurt daily? He understands that they’re all demigods but there must be at least one day where people don’t come in for every tiny little scratch. At this point, they’re going to need another building just to house patients and his dad to be more horny so they can get more healers. He chuckled at that thought, putting his arm over his eyes. He heard the door open slowly. 

“Hi, Will,” A tired voice called out. 

“Nico!” Will felt his heart fluttering seeing his boyfriend but the appearance of the dark eye circles under the boy’s wide eyes made him frown, “Where have you been lately? I haven’t heard from you in like a week. I practically sleep here!” 

“Errands for my father.” Nico flopped on the bed listlessly, but somehow, that ignited something in Will who wasn’t usually an aggressive person. He had been working his butt off at the infirmary for the past week and longing to go back to his boyfriend who was never present and who never left any messages so on top of stress from managing the infirmary, he also had to worry for his boyfriend’s wellbeing. This much stress was already taking a toll on him, yet Nico couldn’t even elaborate on his absence. This wasn’t how it should be. 

“Nico, what kind of errands?” 

“Eh, the usual.” 

“You know, I would appreciate it if you asked about my day.” 

“Sorry, I just want to get some sleep. I need to go soon. I need to help Charon with transporting the dead. There have been so many deaths lately.” 

“Again?! How many days do you have to be gone? Do you even know how many days it’s been since we’ve done anything together?” 

At the sudden outburst Nico rolled over and peered at his boyfriend, “You know that I have to run errands for my father!” 

“Yeah, but it would be helpful if you remembered that you had a boyfriend!” Will left the bed and glared at his boyfriend.

“What do you mean by that!” 

“I mean that I have been working my butt off in the infirmary for days and I just want to see my boyfriend at the end of a stressful day, not be stressed every day about where he is and what he’s doing!” 

“Well I never told you to keep track of where I am! I’m not a child anymore. You know that I will always come back!” Nico stood up, trying to match Will’s height. 

“Do I? Do I really? Well I don’t think so. I think you are just an irresponsible little kid who doesn’t know anything and isn’t ready for commitment!” 

Nico’s eyes welled up with angry tears and he wiped them away hurriedly, his voice close to a whisper, “You don’t mean that.” 

“You know I do.” Will was speaking against his better judgement, what he does every time he gets angry. 

“I think you are right, you don’t want to date this irresponsible, inconsiderate, spiteful, angry jerk-of-a-kid. I...I think I need to leave.” Nico grabbed his jacket and stormed out, still trying to stop the hot tears from falling from his eyes. 

That’s when Will knew he messed up. “Wait!” Will ran after him. His mind was running a mile a minute. He could’ve shadow traveled. He could’ve gone to hurt himself. He could’ve gone to Hazel’s who would surely rip Will’s head off. He could’ve gone to Jason’s who would zap him with lightning with no hesitation. He could’ve jumped into the river, gotten attacked by a monster, the possibilities were endless. 

Thankfully, Will caught a tiny movement in the corner of his eye and ran towards it. It was Nico, dashing behind a rock. He thanked all the gods listening that he hadn’t shadow traveled away. Will approached him slowly, like he was sneaking up on a deer. He only had one chance at making up with Nico and he knew this. 

“Nico, please. Please hear me out.” He reached out and set his hand gently on a shoulder. Nico flinched but Will could feel him trying his best to stay still and he was thankful. 

“I was out of line. I’m so sorry. I know I can’t take back my words but I will do anything.” Will scooched closer to him and took his hand, “Anything to make it up to you.” 

Nico glared at him with wet eyes, untrusting. 

“I’m serious. I know it just sounds like excuses but we’ve been having a lot of patients lately, many in critical condition and it’s just so tiring to heal them. And…..I just wish sometimes that you were here with me. But everytime I think that, I always get scared because if you were here, you would probably be on one of those beds and I don’t know what I would do if you were hurt.” Nico chuckles, wiping at his eyes. 

“I know that you will hate hearing this but I do think you don’t know love,” Nico looked at him with sad eyes, “But we both are. We don’t know how to love but that’s okay. We can figure it out together. I know that you probably wanted a love like in the fairy tales, where we just fall in love and live happily ever after but life is too much of a bitch for that.” Nico looked at him and laughed through his tears. It was the first time he had heard Will swear. Will laughed as well, admiring his boyfriend’s face, and gingerly wrapped his arms around Nico. 

“We will fight, we will have times when we just want to kill each other, we might even have moments when we fall out of love. But that’s okay because our love is stronger than that. It won’t be easy but we can do this, only if we are together. You’ve fought countless monsters, and I’ve fought countless injuries, illness. What’s so scary about love?” 

“Cupid.” They both laughed and Will squeezed him tighter before holding him by the shoulders and staring him in the eyes, “I promise he will never hurt you again. Not if I have a say in it.” 

Nico’s eyes started watering again and Will moved to wipe away the tears. Then Nico did something Will didn’t expect him to. He smiled and took his hand and wrapped it around him, pressing himself into Will’s arms. Pleasantly surprised, Will’s arms naturally found their way around Nico. That was the first time they knew they loved each other. 

_**No, they didn't have the money to afford a fancy car. But they never had to travel 'cause they'd never be apart. Even at the end, their love was stronger than the day that they first met.** _

“This is Charlotte, new to camp, daughter of Aphrodite. I’m just showing her around.” Andrea smiled at her siblings as she had just walked into the infirmary. 

“Hi, I’m Will, head of Cabin 7.” Will stook out a hand and shook it, stepping back afterwards to check on his patients. After the tour, Andrea laughed as she told Will that Charlotte wouldn’t stop asking questions about him. 

“Did you tell her I’m taken?” 

“No, why would I do that?” 

“To help your brother whom you _very_ much love?” 

Andrea stuck out her tongue. “Never, I want to watch you suffer.” 

“Jonathon, Andrea will take your night shift!” 

Jonathan laughed, “Alright, what did she do wrong this time?” 

Andrea looked betrayed, “How could you do this-” 

“Lee, your night shift is the night after right? Andrea will take that one too.” Andrea glared at her brother while Will looked at her smugly. They both knew that Will would most likely help her out with Lee’s night shift but it just felt good to bicker, comfortable. 

“Will, would you like to go out with me?” Charlotte asked and gods was she pretty. It didn’t help that she was a daughter of Aphrodite. Thankfully, Will was not swayed. “I’m good. Thanks though Charlotte. 

“Well what if we just went to New York City to grab something to eat, as friends.” She gestured to the rest of the healers, “All of us.” As the other healers nodded eagerly, Will just shook his head, “That’s very kind of you but I still have patients to tend to. But you guys have fun!” He bowed and walked away respectfully. The only one he wanted to have lunch alone with was Nico. 

“You know, some girl asked me out today.” Will was laying on the bed, reading one of the demigod-friendly comics while Nico sat at his desk, working on some paperwork. He didn’t even look up from his work. 

“Did you like her?” 

“You are the only one for me, sunshine.” Nico still flushed at that nickname. Will rolled over, “No, seriously. She didn’t have the best first impression so it was never going to happen.” 

This made Nico pause. “When you first met me, did you think you were going to date me?” 

Will laughed, “Well you were dying on my hands so I gotta say it wasn’t the best first impression.” Nico chuckled lightly, “But honestly, I was thinking that such a cute boy shouldn’t be lying here like this and that I needed to save his life.” 

“Really?” 

“Of course….What was your first impression of me?” 

“Honestly? You were covered in spots because I was blacking out...but I remember thinking that you were pretty cute and if I wasn’t basically spilling my guts, I would’ve asked you out on the spot.” 

“No way, you wouldn’t have the guts.” 

“You’re right, I didn’t have the guts because you had my them.” Will hugged him from behind, amused by his boyfriend, “But,” Nico breathed in the ocean smell, “do you like me more now?” 

“Oh definitely. For one, you are whole now.” They shared a chuckle, “But yeah, you are the prettiest boy in the world.” 

Without hesitation, Nico jumped out of his chair and tackled Will, ruthlessly tickling him as Will gasped for air between his fits of laughter. 

_**They'd say: the world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your lover, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you. When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind, If we have each other then we'll both be fine. I will be your lover, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“How could you mess this up?!” Hades screamed at his son. He was furious. “How could you let them get away? You had them!” 

Nico bit his lip and pressed his forehead further into the floor, keeping his eyes trained on his knees. “I apologize, I have no excuse.” 

“How are you so worthless? Did you know that your mother died because of you? Your sister died because of you?” 

Nico nodded, ashamed of himself. 

“Bianca would’ve done a much better job. She isn’t stupid enough to release dangerous souls back into the world.” 

Nico felt his eyes mist over and nodded, taking his father’s berations. When he walked out of the throne room, he wanted to cry. He wanted to just curl into a ball in the corner of his room and sob but he couldn’t do that. He sucked up all his feelings and set out to find the souls. 

“Hey sunshine.” Will walked into Cabin 13, smile as bright as the sun, only to find his boyfriend lying on the sheets, motionless. Tear tracks were evident on his cheeks yet he didn’t make a move to wipe them away even when Will walked in. 

“What happened?” Will sat him up and he could see the extent of the pain Nico was in. His eyes were bloodshot and drooping, skin pale. 

“Just...my father yelled at me again.” 

“Are you okay?” 

“Not really. He…..said that Bianca would’ve done a better job than me.” Will hugged him as tears were squeezed out of Nico’s eyes, dripping onto his shirt. 

“You know? I didn’t blame him either. She’s independent, strong, charismatic. She would’ve done so much better than me.” He erupted in tears and Will could only pat his back, in what he hoped was a soothing manner. “I miss her so much.” 

“You would’ve liked her, you know. She’s so smart and witty.” 

“Sounds nothing like my sisters.” Nico let out a surprised laugh at the unexpected statement and Will took that as a sign to continue. “I’m serious.” Which only caused Nico to laugh even more. 

“But,” Will wrapped his arms around Nico, “I wish I could’ve met her. She sounds exactly like you. Smart, independent, charismatic. I bet she’s also super good looking.” Nico blushed and a small smile overtook his face which Will took as a good sign. 

“Hey do you know what day it is today?” 

“No? Is today special?” 

“Today is our one year anniversary!” Nico’s face dropped, looking frantic which elicited a laugh from Will. 

“Don’t worry, sunshine. I prepared something.” Will helped himself up and kneeled before Nico, asking for his hand. Nico took it and Will laughed, taking his boyfriend outside, leading him through a small creek around the back of the cabin and into the forest. They stopped in front of an area of trees. 

“You brought me to the middle of a forest? Are you going to kill me here?” Will laughed and gestured for him to slip through the wall of trees and Nico gasped at the other side. It wasn’t grand, but there was a small opening behind the trees, an area of green that wasn’t covered by trees. His name was written in the trees with the branches, most likely courtesy of tree nymphs and a blanket was laid down on the grass with a basket of sandwiches and some juice. He had prepared a picnic. 

Nico laughed and Will seemed smug, proud of himself, “Not bad, huh? Only took me a couple hours to prepare everything. Although it took me an hour alone to convince the tree nymphs to write your name in the branches. I was actually thinking of writing Happy Anniversary or something like that but they shot down that idea, saying that-” Nico hugged him, partly to shut him up, partly to express his gratitude. 

Will wrapped his arms around him and buried his head in his boyfriend’s hair. He loved him. 

_**You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“-and Ares actually has infinite health for three rounds but I never understood this. Just because he is the god of war doesn’t make him invincible. But the blood rage part makes sense. Also like-” Nico had been rambling about Mythomagic for nearly half an hour now. Will had asked him to teach him to play and Nico refused, insisting that he’s grown up now and too mature for such card games. Will, however, would not give up and begged him to teach him to play since it looks like an extremely complicated game. Scoffing, Nico said that it’s just childish and launched into an explanation. 

Will could listen to him talk forever. Nico’s voice was usually soft and quiet but steady and deep. It was relaxing. 

“What about Apollo?” 

“Apollo isn’t considered strong or weak. He’s actually quite in the middle. When the game starts, Apollo has 30 points of health in the beginning. It isn’t that much especially considering Ares or even Kronos who has infinite health. Also, considering that most of the gods have attack points in the thousands, so theoretically Apollo wouldn’t last that long in games. However, he does have 2000 defense points at the beginning as well so that combined with the 30 points of health, he actually does last pretty long in games. But then again, compared to Kronos, who has an infinite number of defense points-” Nico stopped, peering at Will who was looking back up at him, adoringly. 

“Sorry, you probably aren’t that interested in statistics right? Well, just know that Apollo isn’t strong or weak.” Will chuckled, he could already hear his father’s indignant gasps about how he should at least be stronger than Ares. 

“I love you, Nico.” Nico’s eyes widened. This was the first time any of them have ever told the other that they loved them. They both knew that they loved each other but it never needed to be physically said. Nico’s cheeks heated up. Now that Will said it, he genuinely felt the weight of those words, the responsibility, the pain that many people feel just based on those three simple words. Will buried his head in Nico’s neck. For the first time in weeks, they finally felt safe. 

_**I'm 23, and my folks are getting old. I know they don't have forever and I'm scared to be alone. So I'm thankful for my sister, even though sometimes we fight. When high school wasn't easy, she's the reason I survived. I know she'd never leave me, and I hate to see her cry. So I wrote this verse to tell her that I'm always by her side. I wrote this verse to tell her that I'm always by her side.** _

“Hey Nico-” Hazel burst into Cabin 13. She had just gotten back from a trip (she insisted that it was professional) with Frank to basically all corners of the world in order to carry out some mission for the gods. She’d gone to Camp Half-Blood before stopping at Camp Jupiter because she wanted to see her friends, especially her brother since she had been worried about him on the trip nonstop. He was bullied often at camp since he was an easy target and known for not fighting back unless they really pushed him over the edge. When she stepped into the dark cabin, the first thing her eyes landed on was Will and Nico cuddling, asleep on the bed. 

“Will?” They both jumped up at the sound of her voice, with Nico stuttering out, “Ha-Hazel. You’re back!” He embraced her awkwardly as Will just stood there. 

“What..is going on here?” She looked suspicious. Nico had basically no friends out of their group. 

“Um, Hazel….Will and I are….dating.” As if to make a point, Nico reached for Will’s hand and he squeezed back, reassuringly. 

Hazel eyed Will up and down, then grabbed Will by the collar, “I’m warning you….don’t hurt him or else you will have to deal with me.” Will chuckled nervously, “Wouldn’t dream of it.” 

Mildly satisfied, Hazel turned back to her brother, “Why didn’t you tell me about this? We iris-messaged each other like every week.” 

“I mean, it’s just not something you would say over an iris message.” 

She squinted, “Would you have told me if I hadn’t walked in on you guys?” Nico flushed and shook his head, embarrassed. Hazel softened, “I just, want to be more involved in your life. If you have to tell me how many times you ate, how many strokes it took to sharpen your sword, what you said to every single camper that day, I want you to tell me. I want you to trust me. You know I care about you Nico.” Nico looked at her sadly and apologized profusely, explaining that he wasn’t use to having someone care about him and Hazel pulled him into a hug. 

“So,” she let go, “Will huh?” She raised her eyebrow mischievously, teasingly. They both blushed. 

“Gods, I can already tell, Will loves you so much. You are so lucky. It’s going to be nice having a healer in the family, especially since we get hurt so often.” 

“So...you aren’t mad?” 

“I was only sad because you didn’t tell me about your relationship but you guys are so cute together!” They giggled, looking at each other admiringly. “So, you guys have to tell me everything! How did you guys meet? Who asked who out? Have you guys kissed?” 

They shared a look and Will started, “You see….at our first meeting, he wasn’t actually whole-” 

_**I wrote this verse to tell her that: The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“So,” Percy walked into Cabin 13, “does anyone know what we are here for?” He took a seat next to Annabeth and slung his arm over her shoulder. 

“No idea” Piper shrugged.

“No, but I think Hazel knows.” Frank pointed at his girlfriend who held her hands up defeatedly, “Hey, Jason does too!” 

“What’s this about?” Annabeth leaned forward in her seat, causing Percy to lean forward too. 

“He’ll tell you himself.” 

“Hey guys!” Leo burst through the door, hand in hand with Calypso, “I hope you guys don’t mind if I brought her.” 

Choruses of “never”s erupted around the room, with Piper ending it with, “Yeah, she’s like the one with the most style and you guys could always use some of that.” They all sneered at that, protesting, “What do you mean we don’t have style?” “Speak for yourself” “I think I’m the most stylish” “I honestly don’t care about style” “Me too, I’m bad at it” “I just bought this really cool shirt the other day, talk about stylish.” 

“Hello everyone!” Reyna came in, “Sorry I’m late, praetor duties.” They all welcomed her to the party. 

Will and Nico came in and everyone shut up immediately. Nico laughed nervously. 

“Hello everyone.” He got choruses of “hello”s back, “I’ve gathered us all here because I wanted to tell you guys something.” He took Will’s hand, “We’re dating.” 

At first there was silence and Nico’s heart felt like it was beating out of his chest. All of sudden, the cabin erupted in cheers. 

“About time!” Leo pat him on the back. 

“Yeah, now we’re all in relationships now!” Percy cheered. 

Annabeth elbowed him, “Not Reyna.”  
They all turned to her. She wrinkled her nose, “Not interested. I have other things I would rather use my time on...But I’m so happy for you guys!” They turned their attention back to Will and Nico and started talking at once. 

Nico felt a smile creep onto his face, he finally found his home. He hugged Will, resting his head on his shoulder. He finally found acceptance. 

_**When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind. If we have each other then we'll both be fine. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you.** _

“Are you okay with it? Because we could totally not do it if you aren’t okay with it.” Will whispered into Nico’s ear. 

“Yeah, I can do it. It’s not even worth freaking out over. It’s not even that big a deal.” Will hugged him, “If you are that worried about it, then it is a big deal. You shouldn’t downplay how nervous you are. It’s okay, don’t worry.” 

“Yeah...I’m fine. Let’s do this.” They walked towards the campfire hand in hand. Nico could feel stares as they were walking and each passing stare made him want to run away, go into the woods and shadow travel to a remote place and raise sheep for the rest of his life under the name James. But he didn’t, he stayed there, hand in Will’s. A snicker made Nico’s heart sink. He knew they hated him. He felt a squeeze and looked up just in time to see Will glare at the guy who snickered. He immediately backed off and Nico felt his heart well up in happiness. This was why they were great together. 

_**You should know I'll be there for you.** _

As they gathered around the campfire and sang, Will and Nico sat in the back, hand in hand. Will was watching the fire with love in his eyes and singing along passionately. Nico watched him. This boy with the biggest heart, who was the best healer, one of the most good looking guys, was his. This boy who always loved too passionately and knew what to say to cheer him up and looked at Nico like he was his everything was his. This boy with the reflection of the flames dancing across his face and would look back every once in a while to stare at Nico, was his. He wasn’t anyone else's, he was his. 

“I love you.” Nico whispered it but Will still heard it.

“What did you say?” 

Taking in a deep breath, Nico repeated, “I love you, Will.” 

Will’s eyes crinkled and his smile stretched upwards, even more than already was. He leaned forth, took his boyfriend’s head and kissed him on the lips. Their lips were locked for a couple seconds, both taking in the sweetness of each other’s lips, before they broke apart. They loved each other. Their lips touched again, tentatively, and they let them stay there, letting them move and explore. They went home that night with a sweetness on their lips and a warmness in their hearts. They loved each other.


End file.
